Unusually warm land on the Tibetan Plateau in early winter can help bring heavy rain and snow to California months later. The plateau's height and size heat the air above it, changing temperature contrasts and disturbing the jet stream. That disturbance travels east as a large atmospheric wave, the Tibetan Plateau-Rocky Mountain wave train, which becomes unstable over the Pacific and strengthens atmospheric rivers, long corridors of water vapor that hit the West Coast. In climate model experiments, only runs that started from observed plateau temperatures reproduced the extreme California precipitation, suggesting the link is causal.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.